Can social media enhance service delivery? Lessons and best practices

Abstract

Governments are increasingly leveraging social media to deliver better services to the public. These networks are useful for government organizations since they have many interactive and innovative features which aid communication and interaction among citizens and enable them to interact and collaborate with government in the delivery of public services. This exploratory study examines the use of social media and its potential in enhancing public service delivery. The paper discusses the drivers to the use of social media in government, the benefits and lessons learned, and the best practices of managing social media for service delivery. It focuses on the use of social media in two case studies: the UK Metropolitan Police and Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS). We find that social media has enabled citizen participation, increased transparency, collaboration and improved accountability in service delivery